Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.         – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Nobody’s perfect and everybody makes mistakes. At some point in our lives, even the people who are closest to us will end up hurting us but the doesn’t mean that they don’t love us or that we should resent them almost instantly. We need to take a pause and think things through when making any decisions in life and that includes choosing to forgive those who have offended us. It’s not always easy but if we value the person and our relationship with them over our pride, forgiveness is just around the corner. Sometimes we need some time to think and that’s okay because we all have different ways of coping.

I, myself,  just went through something that challenged my ability to forgive and understand. At first, I was upset over what happened as I felt taken for granted. I wanted to confront this person and tell them what I think and feel but then I decided to pause for a moment. They might be going through something and I could be jumping into conclusion. I need to calm myself down and sleep it off. I need a sense of clarity and not make any hasty decisions fueled by anger. The next day I woke up it became clear to me what this person was trying to do and instead of getting upset, I chose to forgive and understand. But if it happens again, I will make it a point that this person knows how they’ve made me feel with their actions and get my point across with a respectful manner.